In the Name of Love
by Autumn Opals
Summary: Harry's hunt for the remaining Horcruxes crosses paths with Snape. Post HBP.


**In the Name of Love**

**_Disclaimer: I asked for the world of Harry Potter for Christmas-it didn't come (just like Harry in my bath tub), so I don't own the world, J.K.Rowling does._**

A pair of startlingly green eyes swept over the barren landscape. The land had not always looked this way, for once it had held a sparkling lake, crisp trees, and animals big and small. Now the lake was muddy and dwindling, the trees uprooted and splintered, the animals nonexistent. It was no small wonder what had exactly happened here.

Unfortunately, the pair of green eyes did know: it was the former location of the dignified Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was also the previous site of the sixth Horcrux; now destroyed by the person belonging to the surprisingly green eyes, Harry Potter himself.

A stiff wind blew heavily over the territory blowing debris every which way. The green eyes narrowed in the sudden breeze, the mop of messy black hair danced wildly on top of his head, and his ragged robes pressed and rippled against his thin body. He stared up at the abruptly stormy skies and knew he should move on-on to finally killing Voldemort-but something kept him there; watching over the land of where his beloved school had stood.

Perhaps it was because Hogwarts had been such a part of his life ever since he had found out about it. Or perhaps it was because he still didn't know how he was going to kill the dark, powerful wizard, Lord Voldemort.

He couldn't surely use his wand, as certainly Voldemort wasn't so stupid to use his wand against Harry again. The dark wizard probably had already acquired another wand for duels against his foe, Harry.

Thus, Harry was at a loss.

"Harry?"

Harry turned his head over his shoulder spotting Ron and Hermione; "I'm fine. I just want to stay here a little longer. You can go back to the Hollow without me. I'll be along shortly."

Ron appeared like he wanted to protest, but Hermione seemed to understand Harry's deliberation and laid a gentle hand on Ron's tense arm. The fight receded from Ron and he sagged with the eternal fatigue that had plagued them from very early on in their journey. Hermione wrapped an arm around him and they started to walk slowly away, heads bowed against the wind and weariness.

"Wait," Harry said suddenly holding a hand up to stop them.

They turned curiously and devotedly around, staring at Harry blearily, and asking the silent question of: What now?

Harry's mouth quirked; "Tell Ginny I say Hi,"

His friends rolled their eyes, but their mouths, too, twitched in restraint to the exhaustion as they turned back to their plodding pace.

Harry turned back to the land, no trace of the aforementioned spasm of a grin there anymore. The land was ravaged, and the most magical (in both senses of the word) building Harry had ever known was demolished. It would be a sad time when the wizarding press found out about this.

An abrupt rustling sound from the forlorn foliage left of the Forbidden Forest startled Harry. Immediately, he snatched his wand up and poised it for an attack. With experienced deportment, Harry walked soundlessly closer to the rustling.

Soon he had his wand trained over the bush and still nothing more had happened.

A swift rustling came again. This time though Harry felt a light breeze, saw a flash of black, and experienced an attempt to de-wand him from some invisible source.

Harry's nails bit into the wood of his wand and his grip tightened phenomenally. This tactic had already been used on him before, and Harry knew the only thing one could do was to hold on. It was a Death Eater's method called a Snake Bite, and was usually used as a defensive, desperate maneuver.

"Show yourself, Death Eater!" Harry cried as they struggled. This resulted in a split second change from Harry doing battle against loosing his wand to whomever it was he was fighting slinking off elsewhere.

Harry spun madly around not eager to be attacked from behind.

"Reveal yourself!" Harry persisted in a low growl glaring around at his surroundings.

When there was no response Harry shouted; "Revelio!"

There was a whistling sound as the jet of spidery white light scorched the air with its ferocity, but the Death Eater went unrevealed-except, for a momentary ripple of black and a finger or two.

This, however, was enough and Harry pivoted to the aforesaid area zealously bellowing; "REVELIO!"

Harry's magic crackled and screamed. At the same time, the sky burst open with heavy rain and lightning lit up the bleak sky. A fluid material filled Harry's outstretched hand and a black figure appeared a little to the right.

The black figure had soiled, bloodied skin and a tall, skeletal body. Mangled and faded black robes billowed in the vanishing light from the lightning. The strange body before Harry was like a ghost ship: imposing and haunting.

That is, until the strangeness of the man was extinguished by the stark, hooked nose and strong sneer. The clipped, even tones he spoke with next were utterly familiar too; "Potter, how nice of you to finally uncover me,"

"You had it coming," Harry replied quickly; thinking about all those times dark deeds had gone on at the mass of now blackened soil that had been tied to Snape; "You've killed off your greatest supporter."

Snape sneered deeper; "There's still the Dark Lord and his supporters."

Harry adopted Snape's sneer; "He is nothing without his Horcruxes."

Snape's eyes popped curiously; "What are you saying, Potter?"

Harry winced instead of answering though. The realization had hit him that he was not talking to Ron or Hermione, not even Ginny or McGonagall: he was talking to Snape the Traitor! He shook his head weakly at Snape; "I'm a fool."

"Yes, you are," Snape agreed readily.

Harry scowled; "And you're a coward. What's become of the "Great" Potions Master, now? Reduced to scampering around under an invisibility cloak following his teenage arch-rival's son around? Isn't that right, Snivellus?"

Snape continued getting progressively red in face at this. It caught Harry off guard too because it gave Snape a tint that hinted he might actually be alive with a working heart, but most peculiarly it gave the notion Snape had feelings. It was strange that Snape should suddenly have feelings when Harry had objectified him for nearly a year.

"So why did you murder Dumbledore, Snape?" Harry reminded both himself and Snape.

Snape's sneer had been kept faithfully up all through Harry's earlier charade. However, now, it appeared to falter in the face of Harry's bold question. It was only for a moment though and then it was back up on display albeit a bit enforced.

His voice was succinct when he answered though; "Your esteemed Headmaster ordered me to."

"YOU LIE!" Harry roared desperately.

Snape sneered deeply; "You'd like to think so."

"BISPEONA!" Harry bellowed.

Snape grunted and doubled over as the pale pink jet of light struck his abdomen. The Spell Bispeona causes immense pain. It was close to being an Unforgivable.

"I…" Snape started panting and grunting around his words in a very undignified way; "…see you've…learned your…lesson…"

At mention of Harry's failed attempt at the Cruciatus Curse in Harry's fifth year Harry poked his wand closer and urged his wand harder. The Spell strengthened and Harry watched with satisfaction as Snape struggled not to scream.

Finally, he relented; "Fine! Fine."

Harry released Snape from the terrible Spell.

"Draco…I…his mother…Unbreakable Vow!" Snape babbled most foolishly and unSnape like in the wake of the spell.

Harry face did not soften. He quietly hissed; "Explain."

"Draco's mother and I had an Unbreakable Vow that I help Draco finish his assignment to kill Dumbledore. If I didn't help Draco I would die."

Snape's face was serious, but there was something else curling his lip and glowing in his black eyes. Harry concentrated hard on the dark orbs and, wordlessly, he locked Snape into place with a casual toss of his wand. Then, breathing deeply, he plunged forward.

The alien surroundings assaulted Harry, but he batted them patiently away driving deeper in the inky black of Snape's mind. Soon the thoughts flowing around him started changing into blurs, so Harry could no longer tell exactly what the thought's essence was. Harry stopped a moment to take a breath of the blackness and then stretched. He continued on, cloaked in the black of Snape's mind, and the thoughts sharpened back into focus.

Finally, Harry found the thought he wanted. He leapt on it dragging it under his cloak and fled Snape's mind with the struggling thought.

Harry very nearly gasped aloud when he broke from his Legimency with Snape, but stealing thoughts from the Dark Lord's mind had taught him well. It was this that had allowed Harry to find out about the remaining Horcruxes and their locations.

Snape, however, was not doing so good. His body going limp, and his eyes promptly turning themselves into his head, Snape keeled over.

For the next hour Harry replayed the thought he had stolen from Snape in his Pocket Pensieve: a Pensieve which could easily be carried around in your pocket. It had been made for him on his birthday by Hermione.

She had been experimenting with making Pensieves out of different materials. This particular one had been made out of an old tea cup and could hold only five thoughts at a time. That was okay by Harry though, who used it only to analyze thoughts. He had another Pensieve to store his excess thoughts in at home, Godric's Hollow.

Snape's thought portrayed the Unbreakable Vow taken between Snape and Draco's mother. The scene itself wasn't anything remarkable, but in her experiments, Hermione had found out how to tap into the emotions attached to thoughts. The emotion attached to this thought was truly intriguing.

He was just reviewing it for a thirtieth time when Snape stirred beside him. Harry drew his wand immediately in case Snape were to give him any trouble, but as it was a wand stuck in your face upon first opening your eyes was quite enough. The fire was cooled almost immediately and a mere sneer was erected.

"I've been watching you take the Unbreakable Vow." Harry informed him with eyes narrowed and wand still trained on Snape.

If Harry had been expecting something more from this statement he was disappointed, as Snape purely grunted and widely sneered. Harry wondered if Snape had a whole language of Sneer.

He continued; "The scene's nothing too out of the ordinary, but Hermione's figured out how to access emotion connected to thoughts."

Snape continued to sneer but a sliver of anxiety worried the edges of his expression and turned his skin ashen.

Harry waited patiently for something else to happen. He hadn't figured out the root of emotional current that ran through the thought, but he was loath to admit it. After all, he had been doing an excellent job of showing how far he'd come over a year.

However, the silence kept mounting, higher and higher until Harry thought he was lost in it. His wand sparked as he roared at Snape; "WELL?"

Snape smirked and inquired; "Sorry?"

"Sorry!" Harry steamed; "You'll be sorrier soon if you don't explain your feelings on your thought."

"Which feelings?" Snape smiled uncharacteristically pleasant up at Harry. It gave Harry a toothache just looking at him.

"Well," Harry stalled desperately; "Your anger for one and…and your sadness for another…and…er…" Except none of those emotions were ones he wanted to know about. What he really wanted to know about was the mysterious core of emotion. He had feeling he knew it, and it was on the tip of his tongue but wouldn't spill off.

Snape continued to smile painfully.

"I…" Harry stuttered; "You…What's the main emotion?"

Snape's smile broadened and he replied lazily; "How should I know? You're the one who's analyzing it."

"Oh you coward!" Harry snapped in frustration; "Do you think I'll think less of you if you tell me what it is?"

Like magic, on the word "coward" Snape lit up, but it wasn't in a good way. Pushing Harry's wand out of his face, he rose, and snarled; "NEVER CALL ME A COWARD!"

Harry was rather taken aback, but clambered to his feet to match Snape for height with his wand clenched at his side. "YOU KILLED DUMBLEDORE, A MAN WHO ACCEPTED YOU AND YOUR FAULTS! A MAN WHO WAS ALWAYS WILLING TO GIVE SECOND CHANCES, AND LOVE YOU!"

"I did what I had to." Snape bit at last, appearing enraged with strangely glittering eyes and a madly swinging curtain of greasy hair; "I loved Draco, and I had to keep him alive."

Ringing silence followed this bold statement. Snape could love?

"Surely you know well enough that loving is never cowardly." Snape added more softly, the fight leaving him, and sounding broken instead.


End file.
